DCU Comic Book Reviews

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #11

Thy Kingdom Come:  The Second Coming

February 2008

Written by Geoff Johns and Alex Ross

Pencils by Dale Eaglesham

Inks by Ruy Jose and Drew Geraci

Covers by Alex Ross & Dale Eaglesham

Synopsis

At the Flash Museum, Wally West and Jay Garrick run the on the cosmic treadmill in an attempt to find the parallel Earth of the other “Superman,” but the duo can’t find it.  At the Justice Society headquarters, both the Justice Society and Justice League decide to help “Superman” find a way back home.  “Superman” tells them that his home is gone.  The heroes tell him he can stay for as long as he needs to figure out what he wants to do.  On Ellis Island, Judomaster is fighting the Blood Soldiers.  The Justice Society help her.  Elsewhere, FBI agents discover the dead body of Chroma.  One of the agents calls for the assistance from Mr. America.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I was really digging the first half of the story; the second half of the story left me scratching my head.  Not so much because it was bad; quite the contrary.  It was quite good as Johns and Eaglesham do their usual fantastic job with the issue.  No, what got me confused was the sudden shift away from Kingdom Come Superman to other characters and plots not dealing directly with that story.  The entire Judomaster section was jarring (see below) and the Mr. America scene makes sense for long time readers of the series, but in the context of Kingdom Come Superman, where’s the connection?  Both parts (sandwiched between the excellent Power Girl and Superman family conversation) were something I was not expecting, so it left me wondering where it will lead.  Don’t get me wrong, the shift in the story is actually a good thing; I am curious to see how it all connects or what will eventually happen to the new Superman. 

The scene shift from Superman to Judomaster was a little jarring at first, even with the voiceover from Mr. Terrific beginning on the previous page.  Part of the jarring scene transition was the use of the name “Sonia” rather than “Judomaster” in the voiceover.  Since I am not familiar with the character, it took a minute to realize that some of the word balloons were from Mr. Terrific, but that others were from the Blood Soldiers. The other part is that Judomaster has not appeared in this series up to this point, so I was a little confused that Johns would introduce a new character in the book like that.  On top of all that. Johns was forced to toss in a bunch of exposition to explain who she is and why she would be considered for recruitment into the Justice Society, which just further muddied the story already. 

It is curious that when Starman asks for a map to the multiverse, he happens to be looking out of the page and to the reader.  Does this mean something or am I reading too much into it? 

Comic Connection

The brief time Judomaster spent with Oracle occurred in Birds of Prey, beginning with issue #92, which was the first issue of the One Year Later leap.